How do I turn a thesis into a book?
- A dissertation is written to prove competence; a book is written to be read by choice.
- The literature review usually goes entirely or into a bibliographic essay.
- Academic presses and trade presses want very different revisions.
- Most theses lose 30 to 50 percent of their length in the conversion.
- Chapter openings need hooks, which dissertations almost never have.
Cut the literature review, remove the apparatus written to satisfy a committee, and rewrite for a reader who can stop at any time. Decide first whether you are targeting an academic press, which wants scholarly contribution, or a trade press, which wants argument and story. The two revisions are different books.
Chapter i·Why it matters
A dissertation's structure exists to demonstrate that you read everything and made no unwarranted claims. A book's structure exists to make someone keep reading. Those goals conflict at almost every level: hedging, front-loaded methodology, and exhaustive citation all work against the second.
Chapter ii·What to include
- A target press type decided before revising.
- The literature review cut or converted to a bibliographic essay.
- Hedging language reduced so the argument is stated.
- Chapter openings rebuilt with hooks and stakes.
- Jargon translated or defined for the intended reader.
- A new introduction written for a reader with no obligation to continue.
Chapter iii·Example
A historian cut a 90-page historiography chapter to an eight-page essay at the back and rewrote the introduction around a single unresolved question from her archive. The manuscript went from 340 pages to 240 and found a trade press.
In WriteLoom
Everything this article talks about, in one project
WriteLoom keeps the original thesis and the book revision side by side so nothing valuable is lost in the cut.
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